Jean-Louis Gasset: "The most important match of the week"

Are 72 hours sufficient to recover after a match like the one last Sunday in Rennes?

That’s not the way I think. We’re on the eve of an important match. What’s happened has happened. Now, it’s finished. The important thing is to see how the players have recuperated. We’ll go on the field tomorrow (Tuesday) to evaluate the state of the troops, see who can play a second match in a row while knowing that we have another match to play Sunday.

Have your players moved on?

I’ve seen my players, even the most seasoned, irritated. We discussed this and, like they say, after the rain comes the sun. We have to be strong mentally and technically in order to turn things around. We’ve been going through tough times since January 20th. We have to get our serenity back, me first of all, then make Geoffroy-Guichard a dangerous place for others again and the place where we feel good. My expulsion? That happens to me about once a year. I don’t usually get upset or lose it. But, despite having experience, that can happen.

What is your judgement of Youssef Aït Bennasser’s first performance wearing the jersey of the Verts?

Not bad. We had an experienced team at the beginning, especially in the middle. It was the first time that we played without our two key players. One left, the other was suspended. It was coherent in the first half, even if we lacked efficiency. We should have tied and maybe should not have let in a goal due to a dead ball situation. We had already suffered these types of things in Lyon and that to me is unbearable.

How would you work on the defensive aspect during dead ball situations?

For corner kicks, we use man-to-man marking. So, every player has an opponent to cover. You have to anticipate everything that can happen, the tricks…But, it’s a series of duels. You have to lose as few as possible. It’s a mix of concentration and aggressiveness. It’s difficult for me to accept falling behind Rennes when we had the game in hand. A technical mistake in the midfield, a corner kick and we let in a goal. If you look at just the score, you can think that Rennes gave Saint-Étienne a run for their money. That’s not the case. Not at all. I take no issue with our state of mind or behaviour. But rather our efficiency. But that’s also what’s most difficult to have in Football.